Harriet Tubman

by Rosemary Sadlier

  Human dignity and free choice were unimportant, especially when wealth could be amassed by dehumanizing and exploiting others. Slaves lived in separate shacks away from the big house or mansion where the owner lived. Their homes had dirt floors and possibly one thin blanket for a bed. Meals were plain, served from a pot, and eaten with hands. For example, slaves ate cornmeal porridge, fish, or “pot liquor,” the liquid left after vegetables are cooked. The stolen “discards” from slaughtered pigs and cows would supplement their rations. The discards consisted of heads, intestines, organs, feet, and tails, as would squirrels or other small animals that industrious, hungry black people would catch. If they became ill they had to nurse themselves back to health as no doctor would be summoned for them. Knowledge of herbal remedies from the African tradition or learned from Native People was indeed valuable.

  Mothers might be able to have their children with them in the evenings, but even children were taken into the master’s house to assist or were hired out to work for others at the whim of their owner. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives could at any time be permanently separated from each other by being sold, and they often were. In fact, some owners felt that people of African descent had no feelings and did not care if their children were taken from them. Pro-slavery forces felt that enslaved Africans accepted and actually preferred to live their lives in bondage. There was little comfort for slaves except each other.

  Work might slow down on Sundays as Christian owners and overseers would not work on their Sabbath day. Religion was given to the slaves only to reinforce their inferior position and justify their abuse. If a slave died, he or she could only be buried at night because the master’s needs for the labour of his slaves always came first, well above the emotional trauma felt by the slave community over losing a loved one. The images of freedom and movement in many of the hymns did help to provide images of a life that might be had possibly in the North or after death. Those hymns became codes for people who were willing to follow the call for freedom.

  The Underground Railroad was born of the desperation and resolve of black people to be free, and the commitment and resources of free blacks and whites to end slavery. The Underground Railroad was the name of a means of escaping slavery through using various trails, safe houses, and vehicles. It was a system of people helping people to be free, but being connected to the Underground Railroad was dangerous. The Underground Railroad “carried” its human cargo from the late 1700s until slavery was abolished in the United States beginning in 1863. It was the busiest from 1850 on because of the passing of the second Fugitive Slave Act, which put all blacks, whether free-born, manumitted (granted their freedom in the Will of their owner), or runaway, at risk of recapture no matter where they were in the United States. By this time, many of these black peoples had been free for several generations and had acquired considerable property. If they resisted being re-enslaved they were beaten or killed. Some black families were even kidnapped in the middle of the night.

  A “ride” on the Underground Railroad would not be comfortable. Your conductor would lead you north on foot by night through swamps, paths, river shores, and forests. If you were lucky, you would have part of your passage on a real train or a boat paid for or provided by abolitionists — but you might have to wear a disguise since you could end up sitting beside someone who could identify you. You might travel from one station to another in a secret compartment of a wagon or on a makeshift boat. Your food would consist of whatever you had been able to carry and whatever you could find during the six to nine weeks your trip could take. Your sleeping quarters might be a hollow tree, a culvert under a bridge, a cemetery, a root cellar, a barn, a cave, or the open terrain. Until you reached your final destination, you would be in constant fear of being recaptured.

  Many died along the way or soon after reaching the land of freedom because of starvation, chronic fatigue, or exposure. Before 1850, you only needed to travel to places like Philadelphia in the northern United States, but after 1850 your trip would have to be longer, likely all the way to Canada, therefore the risk of recapture would be greater. You would “buy” your ticket with your commitment to be free at any cost, including leaving your family behind, and you would “claim” your luggage of liberty with your first steps into Canada.

  There are two concepts that describe the large-scale capture and sale of millions of African people: the slave trade and Maafa. Maafa comes from the Swahili word for “disaster” and refers to the African Holocaust. For five hundred years Africans were captured, enslaved, and brought to areas controlled by Europeans and Arabs. This ongoing enslavement of Africans had an impact on African settlements and systems, African ways of knowing, African religions, African languages, and the whole gamut of further potential developments within Africa and within the African diaspora. Maafa had an impact on how Africans were perceived, where Africans were felt to be in relation to whites, and on the ways in which Africans were categorized according to the depths of their melanin, their skin colours, rather than on other factors. The slave trade is about how profit was made; Maafa is about the impact on African peoples.

  Africans had made their way to North America independently prior to enslavement. Their remains have been found in the Olmec areas of Middle America and on some of the islands in the Caribbean dating back as early as 800 A.D. Africans travelled into the areas now known as Canada and the United States with the coureurs de bois, fur traders, in the 1400s. Black people helped to found Chicago and built Ontario’s first parliament building in the 1700s. Their presence in North America “before Columbus” is documented, but their routine inclusion in North American history does not usually begin until the transatlantic slave trade.

  Africans were often hired as interpreters to work with Europeans doing business in Africa. It was not uncommon for an African to be able to speak French, Dutch, or Portuguese in addition to their native tongue. Canada’s first named African was Mathieu Da Costa, who arrived on Canada’s east coast by the early 1600s. A free black man, Da Costa was a translator and contract negotiator for Samuel de Champlain, a French trader and explorer who was on a voyage of discovery with Pierre Du Gua de Monts. Through Da Costa’s linguistic skills and possible previous visits to Canada, he was able to interact between the First Nations (the Mi’kmaq and Montagnais) and the Europeans, creating a relationship. Mathieu Da Costa has been commemorated in Canada by the Federal Government since 1996 for his efforts to establish a link between and among the various early arrivals to Canada.

  The first known enslaved African to arrive in Canada was an eight-year-old boy captured from Madagascar and brought to Quebec by David Kirke, a British Commander, by 1628. Sold to a French clerk, Olivier Le Baillif, the child remained enslaved. In 1632, the French regained control of the area, and Le Baillif left, giving his enslaved child to Guilliame Couillard. Being sent to a religious school, the child was later baptized and given a formal name, Olivier Le Jeune.

  While slavery was not officially legalized in New France/Quebec until 1709, the practice had been going on for years prior and was an almost international standard. If one was an African, a negro, then one was presumed to be a slave. The Underground Railroad was a clandestine, loosely organized anti-slavery system. Called the first freedom movement of the Americas, it supported the bravery of enslaved people to escape their bondage through the immediate departure from the plantation and supported them as they required hiding places, food, and clothing along the way. Some aspects of the UGRR have been well documented, and those figures, consequently, are well known. However, at the other end of the spectrum, there was much ad hoc assistance provided by any number of persons to fleeing fugitive slaves, so the real numbers will never be known. More than random acts of kindness, the providers of this help, whether it be a bit of food, correct directions, looking the other way, or actively escorting enslaved Africans, were all knowingly directly contravening the law. Assuming terms from the rail system, station masters w
ere in charge of safe houses, conductors led people through parts of their journey, passengers were the escaping people, and stockholders were those who contributed or handled fundraising for the purchase of necessary supplies for runaways.

  1

  Harriet Tubman’s Beginnings

  Harriet Tubman is one of the most well-known figures connected to slavery and the Underground Railroad. Her story is the continuation of one that had its beginnings much earlier, on the continent of Africa, the ancestral home of all black people.

  Harriet Ross Tubman was one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. She was not content with being free after her escape from the Brodess plantation when so many others were still in bondage. She risked her life to make numerous trips into southern slave-holding states, to rescue family members and others. Her courage, strength, and dedication to fighting slavery led her to join the Union side during the American Civil War. Throughout the war, Tubman acted as a nurse, scout, and military strategist.

  Harriet Ross Tubman was one of the youngest of the eleven children born to Benjamin (Ben) and Araminta (Rittia, “Rit”) Green Ross in Dorchester County of Maryland’s Eastern Shore around 1820. Harriet Ross (later Tubman) was born a slave since both of her parents were slaves; Rit was owned by Edward Brodess (also spelled Brodas or Broades) and Ben was owned by Dr. Thompson. The marriage of her parents’ enslavers brought Ben and Rit together on the same plantation. Harriet’s great grandparents belonged to the Ashanti tribe and were captured from Central Ghana in 1725. This made Harriet the fourth generation of her family to be enslaved in the United States.

  When Harriet was very young, she was free to run about the plantation while her family went to work in the fields. Young enslaved children were cared for by slaves who were too old to do the more strenuous work. Each year the slaves were issued their clothes and Harriet received her rough cotton smock, but nothing else, just like the other slave children. No shoes were given to slaves, and Rit, like the other enslaved adults, received plain outfits or the used clothes of the master’s family and his staff. To keep warm on chilly evenings, Harriet would snuggle up to her mother as they, along with the rest of the family, tried to sleep on the dirt floor of the tiny place reserved for them as a home. At least Harriet had the benefit of warm, nurturing parents and the security of being in the same place as her family, as many children were sold away never to know what had happened to their parents or brothers and sisters. Something as simple as a birthday was not given any recognition, so slaves knew little of their African heritage, little of their family heritage, and little of their personal heritage.

  From The Refugee by Benjamin Drew, Harriet Tubman said of her life:

  I grew up like a neglected weed, ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it. Then I was not happy or contented: every time I saw a white man I was afraid of being carried away. I had two sisters carried away in a chain-gang — one of them left two children. We were always uneasy.

  Now that I have been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaping slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave. I have no opportunity to see my friends in my native land, if we could be as free there as we are here. I think slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another person into bondage he would it appears to me, be bad enough to send him to hell if he could.

  By the time Harriet was about five, it was decided that she should be hired out to other people. Brodess would charge for Harriet’s services and keep the money that Harriet earned. As was the custom for slaves, she took another name when she was hired out, calling herself Araminta or “Minty.” For this substitute owner, Harriet was to clean all day and rock the baby all night. Because she was a slave, not a “person,” her need for sleep was overlooked. Her mistress wanted to make sure she got her money’s worth out of her slave, even when the slave was scarcely older than the child she was expected to care for. She dusted and swept to the best of her ability, but because some dust remained in the room she was whipped about her face, neck, and back. This process was repeated four times until her mistress realized that Harriet needed to be shown how to do it correctly. Until the day she died, she bore the marks of these and subsequent beatings. Harriet detested indoor work; she detested slavery. In order to rock the baby, Harriet had to sit on the floor since the child was almost as big as she was. If the mistress was awakened by the cries of the child, Harriet was beaten. When Harriet was returned to her mother because she was ill, her mistress said that she had not been worth a penny.

  On another task, Harriet was to learn to weave, but the fibres in the air bothered her — she did not do well. Then the master, James Cook, had Harriet tend his muskrat traps in the nearby Greenbriar swamp. Harriet preferred to be outdoors, away from the constant glare of the mistress, but she soon became sick and feverish due to the insects and dampness of the swamp. Her master demanded that she continue to work, but when Harriet was unable to she was returned to Rit to regain her strength. Slaves were not considered people or citizens of the land they toiled, so Rit’s knowledge of helpful herbs and her almost constant care got Harriet through her bout of measles and pneumonia — no doctors were summoned for “property.” Harriet later said that her owner, Brodess, was not unnecessarily cruel, but those to whom she was hired out to were “tyrannical and brutal.”

  Harriet was deprived of many of the things that her owners took for granted. When she was hired out to a family near Cambridge to do housework, young Harriet was tempted to try one of the sugar cubes she saw in the sugar bowl. She noiselessly removed one cube and popped it into her mouth, but she was convinced her mistress had seen her stealing. Fearing punishment, she ran away, hiding in the pig sty. She hid for five days, eating the same food that the pigs ate. This was not too difficult to do since in certain respects it was better than what she was normally given to eat. Finally, she came out of hiding and was whipped for running away.

  Harriet was described as a willful and moody child — perhaps she was trying to express her independence. She was adamant about having outdoor work, so Brodess relented. At least he would be able to get some more money from her outdoor work instead of having other owners sending her back all the time because she was a poor house worker. As such, nine-year-old Harriet was hired out to do field work. This was an area that Harriet did well in. She enjoyed the outdoors, the feeling of almost being free since she was not being closely monitored. Luckily for Harriet, because she proved valuable in harvesting, tilling, and planting, she was not used for breeding purposes. Harriet’s outdoor work also had the side benefit of strengthening her petite body and increasing her endurance, which would later serve her well on her treks north.

  Being outdoors with other travelled slaves brought Harriet into contact with stories of escaping slavery, and she learned that freedom could be had by following the northerly flow of the Choptank River out of Maryland or by following the “drinking gourd,” which was the North Star. In this same way, she learned that the nature of enslavement in the deep south (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina) was decidedly different, the work more taxing and ongoing, the conditions and punishments often even harsher.

  When the sun comes back, and the first Quail calls,

  Follow the drinking gourd, For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom

  If you follow the drinking gourd.

  Chorus:

  Follow the drinking gourd,

  Follow the drinking gourd,

  For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom

  If you follow the drinking gourd.

  The riverbank will make a very good road,

  The dead trees show you the way.

  Left foot, peg foot traveling on,

  Following the drinking gourd.

  The river ends between two hills,

  Follow the drinking gourd,

  There’s another river on the other side,

&n
bsp; Follow the drinking gourd.

  When the great big river meets the little river,

  Follow the drinking gourd.

  For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom

  If you follow the drinking gourd.

  While Harriet’s owner may have been, in comparison to other slave owners, “fair,” he did treat his slaves harshly mainly because he developed financial problems. To raise money, he abruptly sold two of Harriet’s older sisters, Linah and Sophy. This act not only separated the sisters from Ben, Rit, and their other brothers and sisters, but also left two of Linah and Sophy’s children behind. This was the norm for slaves, but it made Harriet decide early on that she would try to take control of her life, that she would be free.

  This woodcut shows a heartbreaking scene in which a mother in bondage is wrenched from her baby to be taken to the auction block and sold away. Harriet’s older sister Linah was taken away in this fashion, never to be heard from again.

  2

  Wedded Bliss

  The practice of hiring out slaves to other owners also impacted couples, since legal unions for enslaved people were not allowed. Some “marriages” between slaves amounted to one or two annual visits a year because the partners might be owned by masters living 100 miles or more apart or by masters who had to shift their slaves to those areas where there was work for them to do. Maryland had a law that stated that there were no rights for blacks that a white person had to respect, which included marriage vows. The very ability to choose your own partner and consider yourself married, to “jump over the broom,” was a fortunate position — to live with your partner was less likely unless you were both free or both enslaved on the same plantation.